Spanish Socialists Go Ape -- Literally

Veteran journalist Robert Duncan writes from Spain about how the Socialist Party there is moving to guarantee "human rights" to monkeys. You can't make this stuff up, you know?

After changing the definition of marriage by passing same-sex “marriage” legislation last year, now the Spanish government is bent on changing the very definition of “human.” Once again, the Spanish Socialist government is showing where its true priorities are – and it’s not about Iraq, nor immigration, and it’s certainly not about helping families. Instead, the Socialists are in a bother about … monkeys.

Spain’s Socialists want monkeys “to be immediately included in the same category as people.” The party presented this week in Spain’s Parliament a project for simians to have “Human Rights.” The Socialist argument is based on the calculation that men and monkeys have roughly 98 percent of their genes in common.

The Socialists want the initiative to be picked up by the United Nations. One wonders if the Socialists are also guilty of accepting banana kickbacks.

The Archbishop of Pamplona, Fernando Sebastian wryly noted, “Just to be progressive, one doesn’t have to be ridiculous.” Sebastian added, “monkeys should have monkey rights, because to do otherwise would be like asking taurine rights for humans.” According to the Socialists, the classifying of monkeys as people would grant them “the moral and legal protection that currently only human beings have...”

Lukashenka and His Dangerous Friends

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is reporting several news items about Belarusian foreign policy that are as alarming as the injustice and ineffectiveness of their internal policies. Specifics?

1) Lukashenka recently told Iranian Commerce Minister Masud Mir-Kazemi that Belarus plans to expand its trade and economic cooperation with Iran. Belapan reported. Bilateral trade amounted to $38.4 million last year, with Belarus's exports totaling $35.6 million. Belarus supplies MAZ truck kits to an assembly plant in Iran and is in talks for opening a similar assembly facility for MTZ tractors. The country also supplies Iran with road-construction equipment and petrochemical products.

2) The first of the our S-300 surface-to-air missile systems that Russia has contracted to supply to Belarus arrived in Minsk on April 21st. The remaining three systems will be delivered until the end of this year. The systems, which will reportedly include 24 launchers, are expected to be used in a common air defense system currently created by Belarus and Russia to guard Belarus's western borders. Maltsau denied a report earlier this month by Jane's Intelligence Digest suggesting that Belarus may reexport S-300 missile systems to Iran.

3) Syarhey Sidorski met with Cuban leader Fidel Castro at the Revolution Palace in Havana on April 21, Belapan reported. Sidorski told journalists in Havana the previous day that Belarus had been invited to participate in a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement scheduled to take place in the Cuban capital this coming fall. Sidorski also noted that Belarus would like to actively develop economic relations with Cuba. Belarus exports mainly trucks and tractors to Cuba and imports raw sugar from there.

The world is becoming an uglier, more dangerous place every day -- and thugs like Lukashenka, Castro, Putin, Khamenei, and Ahmadinejad are all major components of that slide.

British Medical Leaders Choose Against Women's Health -- Not to Mention, Against Preborn Children

The British General Medical Council ruled that an abortion practitioner who nearly killed a woman in a botched abortion and was the subject of charges of sexual harassment from 35 women can practice medicine again if he undergoes retraining. He can keep his medical license if he can "regain and update his clinical skills" the panel ruled. The GMC will review Mr. Gbinigie's case again in nine months, when it will examine evidence of his retraining.

According to the BBC, Chairman Dr. Howard Freeman told him: "The panel notes that you have not undertaken any medical work since 2003 and is not satisfied that you would be safe to return at this time to unrestricted practice." The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists supported him returning to medicine. The GMC in January ruled he can keep practicing medicine but he was subject to earlier restrictions placed on him after the botched abortion. He has asked for the limits to be lifted.

And Now Cynthia McKinney Attacks Freedom of the Press

..."Well, you're a distraction because that seems to be all you want to talk about," McKinney responded. "But people here understand that my representation is much larger than any discrete incident."

McKinney then walked out on the interview. But she did not tell Starzyk that their conversation was over, nor did McKinney allow an audio technician to remove the wireless microphone attached to her for the interview.

While she was off camera, McKinney criticized a member of her staff, Coz Carson. "Oh, crap! Now, you know what?" McKinney asked an unidentified aide. "They lied to Coz and Coz is a fool!"

Realizing that her microphone was still on, McKinney returned to the room where the interview was being conducted and, knowing that she was on camera, told Starzyk: "Anything that is captured by your audio, that is captured while I'm not seated in this chair, is off the record and is not permissible to be used. Is that understood?" McKinney said...

Dems Hoping to Exploit Still Further ESCR Disinformation

The New York Times published a story today gleefully suggesting that Democrats are going to push embryonic stem cell research in order to exploit what is already soft-headed thinking on the issue by Republicans. That strategy, of course, depends on the media and even the scientific community (both of whom should know better) continuing their wild distortion of the facts. Our job is a big one...but it can be done... by getting the real case about ESCR and the much better (on all accounts) alternative, adult stem cell use.

Pastors, we sure could use some assistance from you guys too!

Who Remembers the Etruscans?

Terry Herring sent over a tip to check out this article from AgapePress. It is written by Ed Vitagliano, Editor of the American Family Journal and is entitled Europe’s Chastisement: How the Abandonment of Christianity May Be Leading to Disaster. In the article, Mr. Vitagliano deals with Europe's increasing "birth dearth" crisis, the severe loss of family cohesion and values, the surrender to "Islamification", and more. In the process, the writer leans on some very good sources, among them Mark Steyn, Chuck Colson, Don Feder, Maria Burani, and World Magazine's Gene Edward Veith. Thanks, Terry; it is a good one.

Viacom: Scum, Sleaze and Now, Selective Censorship

Brent Bozell's column puts the spotlight on both the filth and the hypocrisy of entertainment giant Viacom. His is an important piece to read but difficult to take. Sure, one knows it's really nasty out there but every once in awhile, a report like this one gives you details you weren't aware of...and which you don't really want to be aware of!

If there's no repentance in their future, the folks behind Viacom and South Park are gonna' be in big, big trouble.

(Adult) Stem Cell Treatment May Get Jacki Walking Again

...“I knew there was a possibility before I had surgery, but I asked her after surgery if the doctor fixed it, and that’s when she told me that he fixed my back but I still was paralyzed,” she said.

“My mom said I didn’t talk for a long, long time. I just stared at the walls and I cried a lot. I think what was going through my head was that I would always need help and not be able to do hardly anything and that pretty much my life was over.”

But about a year later, Rabon’s pastor at First Baptist Church in Waverly, Ill., called the family to tell them he had just watched a special on PBS about a cutting-edge surgery that involved harvesting stem cells from a patient’s nose and transplanting them into the site of a spinal cord break...

Read the whole story from the Baptist Press right here.

Ohio State Drops Sexual Harassment Charge

The story isn't yet up on the ADF site but by clicking on the title of this post you can read David Limbaugh's take on the story. Also here is how the Family Research Council e-mail update described things ---

Common sense has broken out in Ohio--even on a college campus. Allegations of "sexual harassment" against Scott Savage have been dropped. He is the librarian at Ohio State University's Mansfield campus who recommended David Kupelian's Marketing of Evil as a balance to the wholly liberal reading selections offered by Savage's fellow committee members. Because he made this recommendation, Scott Savage initially faced complaints of sexual harassment from two faculty members.

In these days of political correctness the mere charge of sexual harassment or hate speech can jeopardize a career. That's why Scott Savage's lawyer David French says his client may sue his accusers. French, who works with our friends at the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), says it's "absurd" to suggest that merely recommending a conservative book for freshmen to read is threatening anyone. French says Savage, a devout Quaker, is considering litigation because of "damage done to his career and reputation." He has already filed a formal complaint with the university of false accusation by the two liberal profs.

We're happy for Scott Savage, but we know this case is not over yet. This case also demonstrates that when we push back against campus bullies, we can often force them to back down. Once again, we applaud the effort of our allies at ADF for their courage and skill.

Shame on Bush: U.S. President Apologizes for Chinese Protester

No, President Bush; Hu Jintao is not OK!

...CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports the woman was a protester with the Falun Gong movement, a group that says it is persecuted in China for its religious beliefs. She yelled at President Bush, "Stop him from killing. Stop him from persecuting the Falun Gong."

Wilder said Hu was gracious in accepting Mr. Bush's apology. The two leaders moved on in their talks and it was not mentioned again in several hours of meetings. Hu and Mr. Bush sat next to each other at an elaborate luncheon, a departure from traditional protocol, which would have them at different tables...

...She shouted in Chinese and in heavily accented English: "President Bush, stop him from killing" and "President Bush, stop him from persecuting the Falun Gong."

Mr. Bush, standing next to Hu, leaned over and whispered to him," You're OK," indicating the Chinese leader should proceed with his opening remarks. Hu, who had paused briefly when the shouting began, resumed speaking.

The protester was waving a banner with the red and yellow colors used by Falun Gong, a banned religious movement in China. She kept shouting for several minutes before Secret Service agents were able to make their way to her position at the top of the camera stand. They led her off the stand.

A photographer who was standing next to the protester tried momentarily to quiet her by putting his hand in front of her mouth.

"It's hugely embarrassing," said Derek Mitchell, a former Asia adviser at the Pentagon and now an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

China "must know that this Bush administration is good at controlling crowds for themselves, and the fact that they couldn't control this is going to play to their worst fears and suspicions about the United States, into mistrust about American intentions toward China."

What is actually the cause for embarassment here is that China's atrocious accumulation of human rights abuses is seemingly no big deal to President Bush and to almost all of the U.S. Congress.

"You're OK," indeed! This is shameful and it certainly makes Bush's remarks about human rights and "exporting democracy" in other parts of the world ring very hollow.

Furthermore, the Western press must also be blamed for their part in ignoring China's record of repression, incarceration and torture of innocents, forced abortion and mutilation, dire actions taken against free republics, including the United States, etc.

Note even in this article how the reporter frames the issue. The protester from Falun Gong "says it is peresecuted." Well, is it or isn't it? The facts are abundantly clear and readily available so why does the CBS News reporter so obviously duck what should be a central part of the news story?

And the photographer who tried to physically cover Wenyi Wang's mouth? Could there be a more graphic, more memorable metaphor for the way the press has collaborated in the coverup of China's injustice?

Dallas Theological Seminary Weighs in On Da Vinci Code -- Audio and Video

Just click on the title of this post to see a panel of three DTS professors discussing various elements of the Dan Brown book, the upcoming film, and some key refutations of the bad theology therein. The participants are: Dr. Mark Bailey, president and professor of Bible Exposition of Dallas Seminary; Dr. Jeff Bingham, chair and professor of Theological Studies; and Dr. Darrell Bock, research professor of New Testament Studies and professor of Spiritual Development and Culture.

Federal Judge Rules Against Christian Club

From Christian Wire Service -- A federal judge has ruled that the University of California’s Hastings Law School can deny official recognition and funding to a Christian student club that requires its members and leadership to sign a statement of faith. The law school denied funding to the club because the statement of faith violated the school’s anti-discrimination policy.

The club argued that the law school, in denying official recognition and funding, had violated its free speech, free exercise, free association, due process, and equal protection rights.

The court rejected the club’s claim that it could not comply with the nondiscrimination policy without abandoning its Christian mission, the very reason for the club’s existence. Judge Jeffrey S. White found instead that the club did “not demonstrate how admitting [as members] [unrepentant and/or practicing] lesbian, gay, bisexual, or nonorthodox Christian students would impair its mission.”

American Family Association Center for Law & Policy senior trial attorney, Brian Fahling, said a “particularly troubling aspect of the court’s ruling was the judge’s astonishing assertion that there was no evidence that the Christian mission of the club would be impaired by the admission of voting members who were practicing homosexuals or members of different faiths.”

Fahling noted, “the club allowed anyone to attend meetings and to participate in club sponsored events; but to preserve the distinctly Christian mission and character of the club, it was necessary that members and leadership actually be Christians. Yet the court effectively said, ‘I know better than you, or two millennia of Christian teaching, about what your faith requires.’”

Fahling thought it is likely that the club will appeal the district court’s decision.

While Hu Jintao Smiles for the U.S. Cameras, Chris Smith Tells the Truth About Red China

Here's one of Washington's boldest champions of human rights, the Honorable Chris Smith, again condemning the horrific conditions inside Communist China. This National Review article that makes an effective complement to his opening statement of yesterday's Congressional hearing.

Of Pork, Boondoggles and Republican Hypocrisy

I hope Tim Chapman's Town Hall column today will be an eye-opener to those Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents who are yet unmoved to anger by the "new G.O.P." and its addiction to government spending. With few exceptions, the modern Republican Party is as deeply entrenched in wasteful expenditures (with the resultant escalation of taxation) as are the Democrats.

And here's a bonus feature highlighting just one example of extra-Congressional boondoggling. It comes from The Waste Basket, a weekly bulletin of government waste that you'll find as a feature of the Taxpayers for Common Sense website. Here's an excerpt:

Every year, Uncle Sam pays contractors $320 billion to assist with government activities. These contractors purchase or produce everything from computers and highway infrastructure to hand soap and office supplies, making the federal government dependant on their expertise. Trouble is, while the amount of money private companies receive from the government skyrockets, the number of eyes watching how they spend our money is getting smaller and less effective.

The FBI’s effort to build the Trilogy case-management system is a perfect example. This project has already sucked down $537 million worth of taxpayer dollars, and failed to do anything that will help the FBI enhance its investigative capabilities. This week, the FBI announced it would spend an additional $425 million to finish a different case management system, the “Sentinel.”

A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the lack of oversight turned this project into what could be a new hit television show “Contractors Gone Wild...”

ADF Takes on Ohio State

From a Family Research Council update -- Three professors at the Ohio State University at Mansfield have filed a "sexual harassment" complaint against librarian Scott Savage. His offense? Savage had dared to suggest freshmen might balance their reading by studying David Kupelian's The Marketing of Evil, which the professors deem to be "anti-gay." It seems Mr. Savage is a member of a committee that recommends books to incoming students. Other members had suggested liberal works such as those by Jimmy Carter, Maria Shriver, and evolution advocate Richard Dawkins, while recommending no conservative books. Mr. Savage's simple effort to balance the scales now has him under investigation.

Here is the left's hypocrisy on parade. They pose as champions of civil liberties, but are eager not only to suppress ideas they disagree with, but actively to punish those who dare to express them. Fortunately, our friends at the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) are taking up Mr. Savage's cause.

Chris Smith Stands Strong Against China's "Abysmal" Human Rights Abuses

Clicking on the title of this post will take you to the full text of Congressman Chris Smith's bold introduction to today's hearing but at least here is the opening...

Statement by Hon. Christopher H. Smith

HEARING: "Human Rights in China"
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations
April 19, 2006

The Subcommittee will come to order, and good morning to everyone. Today's hearing of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations will examine China's human rights record, especially such areas as China's censorship of the internet, implementation of the right of Chinese citizens to worship freely, protection of minority rights, compliance with international labor standards, China's barbaric practice of organ harvesting, and the destructive effects on Chinese society - especially on women - of its government's coercive one-child policy.

Over the years, I have held more than 25 hearings on human rights abuses in China. While China's economy has proved somewhat, the human rights situation remains abysmal. So-called economic reform has utterly failed to result in the protection of freedom of speech, expression, or assembly. This week's visit of President Hu Jintao of China to the United States provides the U.S. Congress and people an opportunity to bring to the attention of U.S. policy makers and the world community the terrible human rights situation as it exists in China today. It will also help provide the vital context for any relationship we should have with China. And it will, I hope convey our unshakeable resolve and commitment to press Beijing for serious, measurable and durable reform. The people of China deserve no less. It is our moral duty to stand with the oppressed, not with the oppressor.

State Department human rights reports and the consistent reporting from very reputable NGOs indicate that Chinese government repression of its citizens continues. In fact, the current Chinese regime is one of the very worst violators of human rights in the world, and continues to commit egregious crimes against its own citizens daily. At a rough count, the most recent State Department Human Rights Report for China ran to about 45,000 words. Before it even gets down to details, the report lists 22 major rights problems. Few if any nations can even begin to match this unseemly record, from the systematic denial of political freedom and use of torture to interference in the most private matters of family and conscience.

1. Denial of the right to change the government

2. Physical abuse resulting in deaths in custody

3. Torture and coerced confessions of prisoners

4. Harassment, detention, and imprisonment of those perceived as threatening to party and government authority

5. Arbitrary arrest and detention, including nonjudicial administrative detention, reeducation-through-labor, psychiatric detention, and extended or incommunicado pretrial detention

6. A politically controlled judiciary and a lack of due process in certain cases, especially those involving dissidents

7. Detention of political prisoners, including those convicted of disclosing state secrets and subversion, those convicted under the now-abolished crime of counterrevolution, and those jailed in connection with the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations

8. House arrest and other nonjudicially approved surveillance and detention of dissidents

9. Monitoring of citizens' mail, telephone and electronic communications

10. Use of a coercive birth limitation policy, in some cases resulting in forced abortion and sterilization

11. Increased restrictions on freedom of speech and the press; closure of newspapers and journals; banning of politically sensitive books, periodicals, and films; and jamming of some broadcast signals

12. Restrictions on the freedom of assembly, including detention and abuse of demonstrators and petitioners

13. Restrictions on religious freedom, control of religious groups, and harassment and detention of unregistered religious groups

14. Restrictions on the freedom of travel, especially for politically sensitive and underground religious figures

15. Forcible repatriation of North Koreans and inadequate protection of many refugees

16. Severe government corruption

17. Increased scrutiny, harassment and restrictions on independent domestic and foreign nongovernmental organization (NGO) operations

18. Trafficking in women and children

19. Societal discrimination against women, minorities, and persons with disabilities

20. Cultural and religious repression of minorities in Tibetan areas and Muslim areas of Xinjiang

21. Restriction of labor rights, including freedom of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively, and worker health and safety forced labor, including prison labor)...

Important Free Speech Decision Breaks Buffer Zone Around Abortion Mill

Here's the AP story as reported on ABC-TV's Channel 28 news page:

WEST PALM BEACH - A city law requiring abortion protesters to obey a 20-foot buffer zone violates free-speech rights, a federal judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks ruled April 11 that the ordinance is too strict and issued a preliminary injunction, ordering the parties into mediation.

"Freedom of speech is rarely an issue when everyone agrees," Middlebrooks wrote. "Perhaps more than at any other place and any other time, in cases such as this, speech guaranteed by the First Amendment must be protected." A related law prohibiting "unnecessary noise" and "amplified sound" within 100 feet of such facilities can be enforced, Middlebrooks said. The law was passed in October.

"The ordinance was designed to suppress the speech of pro-life demonstrations," said Michael DePrimo, an attorney for three women who regularly protest outside the Presidential Women's Center and had challenged the law in federal court. DePrimo said the city could be liable for attorneys' fees, which amount to about $40,000 so far.

"Unless my lawyer tells me the fat lady has sung, it's not over," Mayor Lois Frankel said. Clinic director Reis said she hopes a new law can be adopted. "Needless to say, we're disappointed," she said. "We will continue to do whatever we can do to ensure a safe environment for our patients with dignity."

More Repression in Communist Belarus

Life goes on as normal in Belarus:

1) The government is denying "Nasha Niva", an independent weekly permission to have a legally registered address in Minsk, which will almost certainly force the cessation one of Belarus's very few surviving independent newspapers. The authorities say the punishment is justified because of a 10-day jail sentence imposed on "Nasha Niva" Editor-in-Chief Andrey Dynko during the antigovernment protests in Minsk in March. Dynko's response? The action is a "legal absurdity" based only on the officials' fear of any opposition voice whatsoever.

"Nasha Niva" is the first regular Belarusian-language newspaper, which was published in Vilnius in 1906-15 and resumed publication there in 1991. In 1996, "Nasha Niva" moved its office to Minsk. Like most Belarusian opposition-minded newspapers, "Nasha Niva" was denied the possibility to be disseminated in 2006 through the state-run network of kiosks and the state postal service.

2) Uladzimir Katsora, head of one of the regional campaign offices of Alyaksandr Milinkevich (one of the brave Belarusians to run as an opposition candidate to corrupt dictator Alexander Lukashenka in the March 19 presidential election) has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for applying for permission from the city of Homel to conduct a peaceful, orderly and, according to national and city statutes, completely legal demonstration. Katsora was arrested and found guilty of organizing an unsanctioned demonstration. That's right; the arrest and sentencing was for something that had not happened!

"Katsora has filed an application with the Homel City Executive Committee for permission to stage a demonstration in the city on April 25 on the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl accident," said Yury Zakharanka, Katsora's colleague. "Although the demonstration is yet to be staged and the city authorities have not yet announced its decision on the application, he has already been convicted."

Pro-Abort Professor and Vandal Finally Apologizes -- Set to Retire

The Northern Kentucky University professor who encouraged her students to vandalize a pro-life display -- and then led them in trashing it -- has apologized. Dr. Sally Jacobson, a tenured 27-year British literature professor, issued her apology just days after saying she saw nothing wrong what she did.
[Jacobson is shown here at left in less controversial days.]

"I deeply regret my impulsive action in dismantling that display," Jacobson said late Tuesday. "It was a mistake of judgment for me to invite my students to participate in that action." Jacobson told WKRC-TV in a taped interview that she hoped her actions did not damage the reputation of the college. "I really love NKU and care very much about my students and don't want them to be harmed," she said. "At this point, I really want the university to be able to defuse the firestorm of attention around this."

NKU has suspended Jacobson and she will officially retire at the end of the school year. WKRC reports that other professors have taken over her classes for the remainder of the semester...

By the way, we're told that police are still investigating the matter despite her confession, her bragging of her action to reporters and many others, and her being caught in the act by new photographers. Hmmm. Officers Toody and Muldoon must be on the case.)

"Soft Christianity" -- Barna Continues to Challenge Religious Optimism

...To some observers, the recent barrage of faith-affirming statistics seems to clash with these measures of limited commitment to faith. George Barna, who conducted the study, felt that the numbers are consistent with the wealth of data on spirituality he has analyzed over the past quarter century.

“These figures emphasize how soft people’s commitment to God is,” Barna explained. “Americans are willing to expend some energy in religious activities such as attending church and reading the Bible, and they are willing to throw some money in the offering basket. Because of such activities, they convince themselves that they are people of genuine faith. But when it comes time to truly establishing their priorities and making a tangible commitment to knowing and loving God, and to allowing Him to change their character and lifestyle, most people stop short. We want to be ‘spiritual’ and we want to have God’s favor, but we’re not sure we want Him taking control of our lives and messing with the image and outcomes we’ve worked so hard to produce..."

To read the full article from The Barna Group, go right here.